Uhunt Mag Information

• Posted By : BRISTLE UP
• Posted On : Jun 29, 2019
• Views : 1774
• Category : PIG DOGGING » ARTICLES, TIPS & HOW TO GUIDES
• Description : "The front left wheel had dropped off the culvert and smashed into the dovetail section doing 100kmh causing my ute to flip, roll, buckle and twist so badly that the only thing left in one piece was the ashtray."

Overview

• By Nick Dowe 
  
  It was home time after 11 days straight in the truck with 360 kilometres left of the trip, to a home cooked meal, nice hot shower, posturepedic mattress and my beautiful lady. 
  It was a very strange day for me as everything seemed to be holding me up and there was a gut feeling something wasn’t right. It was about 11:30 pm, with no more than 30 kilometres from home when all the stars aligned and a nightmare became real. I picked up my phone off the dash to check the time and it lit the cab up causing me to lose my vision, I was quick to turn the phone away and readjust my eyes to the road but before I even had time to think about how stupid that idea was I had veered only slightly off the road to the 6 foot deep gutter beside the road. I had no time to react and it’s amazing how quickly my beloved Landcruiser turned into a crushed coke can. The front left wheel had dropped off the culvert and smashed into the dovetail section doing 100kmh causing my ute to flip, roll, buckle and twist so badly that the only thing left in one piece was the ashtray. I remember dropping off the edge of the road, the extreme thump and intense uncontrolled movement upside down in the air then coming to a stop on the lid. Everything became dead silent as I was gasping for air with gearbox oil and diesel leaking all over me. I unclipped my seatbelt falling to the roof (which was now the floor) and crawled out the front windscreen. As I mentally overcame the shock I couldn’t believe the state of my Ute.
  
  
  
  I recovered my phone and called 000 because I had come to terms with the severity of the accident. I was convinced I must have had some serious injury that I wasn’t aware of yet. The ambulance was quick to arrive and begin the standard observations and even the paramedics were amazed that I managed to walk away from this particular accident. I was admitted to hospital overnight under observation and released in the morning with a few cuts and scratches. I was quite tender but more mentally affected by how serious the accident was and how bad the outcome could have been. What the accident really opened my eyes to is driver fatigue. Admittedly, we’ve all been distracted and taken our mind off the road for a few seconds but when you’re fatigued from work, pigging, long road trips, whatever... then you will be much more vulnerable to an accident due to your loss of concentration. I am very lucky to walk away from this with a very valuable lesson learnt, but fatalities occur every day from accidents caused by fatigue. If I could go back in time, I would have left the phone face down and waited 20 more minutes to check the time and stayed focused on the road ahead. You can imagine the worry I put my family and close friends through and the bad thoughts of how it could have ended my life which scare me stupid. Be safe on the roads people, it only takes a split second for devastation to happen and for the sake of 20 minutes, is it really worth it? I wouldn’t even consider it.